And the winner is…

I have no illusions, though: this really isn’t a recognition that I have the best science blog, it’s evidence that I can put together a really good PR campaign that will turn out the vote for a meaningless weblog award. Yay! If you want a hint on how to get people riled up, though, one good way is the Pro Wrestling method: turn it into a grudge match, with lots of bellowing and thrown chairs. Phil Plait collaborated on this contrived conflict to turn out the partisans, and it worked incredibly well—he and I split 82% of the vote, leaving only scraps for the others (which was grossly unfair to them, and I apologize.)

Speaking of pro wrestling, I must remind everyone that the battle royale between us was completely fake. All that gore? Syrup and food coloring. The teeth we were spitting out? Chiclets. That attack with the folding chair? Note that I hit him with it on the flat to distribute the impact. There is no bad blood between us, I think Bad Astronomy is a terrific site that I read daily, and that I would not have been at all chagrined if the final votes had broken his way at the end. Heck, there wasn’t a bad blog among all the candidates in this category, so I would have been happy to see any of them win. Here, by the way, is the list: I think you’ll agree that I was in very good company, and that the final ranking is not an indicator of the relative quality of their science, but only of their effectiveness at vainglorious self-promotion. Read them all!

Almost all of these were already on my blogroll, so I’ve been reading them all along.

Finally, there is the matter of a little wager. I had bet that if I lost, I’d put together a post that would appeal to a bunch of space-happy astronomy freaks, and that I’d pose for the SkepDudes calendar. Phil likewise promised to praise Pharyngula on his blog and to promote me at the Amazing Meeting this January. These “penalties” were all selected in a spirit of good fun, and just to show that that is the case, I’ll be writing that post anyway, and hey, SkepChick, if you’re still interested, I’ll do the picture (that’ll teach you rude meanies who voted for me because of your distaste for my pasty-pale, sluglike body!).

Comments

Isn’t a pasty-pale, sluglike body in keeping with the major theme of the blog?

Congratulations on winning a meaningless award in a meaningless contest! At the end of The Candidate, when the Robert Redford character says, “Now what do we do?”, there is no answer. You, at least, have one.

Congratulations, PZ! I was hoping you’d win, not only because I really enjoy your blog but because I get some satisfaction from knowing that the best science blog is overtly anti-religion. I confess, though, that I wish PT had done better.

Congratulations, PZ! I was hoping you’d win, not only because I really enjoy your blog but because I get some satisfaction from knowing that the best science blog is overtly anti-religion. I confess, though, that I wish PT had done better.

Yep, congratulations PZ. I must say that marine biology was my awakening into the glories of the natural world, and through the contest I found this blog, so it was a win win for me.

But really, all that emphasis on fake, fun, didn’t mean any of it? It sounds like Lynn Kelly talking about how she isn’t psychic after doing a “cold reading”, and of course we all know she really is in touch with the Other Side.

These “penalties” were all selected in a spirit of good fun, and just to show that that is the case, I’ll be writing that post anyway, and hey, SkepChick, if you’re still interested, I’ll do the picture (that’ll teach you rude meanies who voted for me because of your distaste for my pasty-pale, sluglike body!).

And to think, I was voting for Phil because I’m evil and I wanted you to be humiliated on the pages of SkepDude. It looks like my evil plan might pan out after all–although I must say you don’t seem that humiliated.

The threats of nudity from both sides failed to take into account that most of the she-geeks and a few of the he-geeks here tend to prefer to date within the subspecies so we don’t have a problem with nekkid geeky guys!

True story: I studied (and would still, had I my way) kung fu for some time. My instructor occasionally competed. He and his friends enjoyed coming up with ways of making the “self defense” portions of the competition more memorable for the judges.

In one competition, he’d arranged for his sparring partner to hold a bunch of Chiclets in his mouth, ready to be spit out once “punched” in the face. My instructor’s name gets called, he steps out in front of the judges, addresses them, turns to face his partner…

…and sees the guy chewing.

Apparently, a whole unspoken conversation happened between them in the course about two seconds.

PZ, I voted for your blog because i think nit’s the besrt science blog, not because I was led down the garden path by your propaganda efforts. Please. I’m a skeptic. I’m sure you didn’t mean to be insulting.

But the ECW stuff on the SciFi Channel is real isn’t it? Just like “Crossing Over with John Edward”. They wouldn’t show fake stuff on the SFC and bill it as real would they? As an aside, I would watch ECW if it stood for “Evangelical Christian Wrestling” instead of “Extreme Championship Wrestling”.
(Boy, I sure didn’t miss anything by programming that channel out of my line up all those years ago did I?)

But the ECW stuff on the SciFi Channel is real isn’t it? Just like “Crossing Over with John Edward”. They wouldn’t show fake stuff on the SFC and bill it as real would they? As an aside, I would watch ECW if it stood for “Evangelical Christian Wrestling” instead of “Extreme Championship Wrestling”.

Actually, ECW was pretty novel and refreshing back in the day. I remember the over the top violence in the mid-late 90’s and the raw, punk/hardcore style cult atmosphere. It contrasts strongly with the WWE version, which is just using the acronym, logo and a highly watered down version of the original concepts to rebrand their developmental territories.

ECW was the kind of thing you’d watch if you liked anime’s like Ninja Scroll and Fist of the North Star. I love gore, violence, and a general glorified stunt-act. PZ and Phil would have been awesome in a barbed-wire match.